Remember how TV's "Partridge
Family" all sang and played instruments, had a recording studio in their
garage and traveled around to bookings in a wildly painted bus? The Nerness
Family of Windom has a somewhat similar arrangement, although

the Nerness’ are a two-parent family
and their preferred mode of transportation is a well-traveled Motor Home. Their
music has a pro-family message and many of their bookings are in MN, IA, NE,
and the Dakota’s.

Patriarch Harvey Nerness, a native of Windom, played in
various bands from 1960 to 1977. He remembers purchasing the Fender guitar he
still plays while a student at WorthingtonJunior College. His wife, Linda, sang and toured with
a large ensemble before they met. When Harvey and Linda married and lived in
the Twin Cities, they were in a music group with some other adults.

"When the kids came along, we phased them in and phased the adults out," joked Harvey. "Well, actually there was
really a breaking point where we didn't do anything for a while."

The oldest Nerness child, Andrew,
now 18 and a junior at AugustanaCollege, began playing piano at age 4.
Similarly, Allison, the next in line at 17, has been playing the violin for
almost 10 years. Laura, 14, plays both the steel guitar and harmonica,

andElizabeth, 12, joins her mother and brother
on the keyboards. The Nernesses live on the shores of
CottonwoodLake in Windom. They returned to Harvey's hometown in 1997 after living in Forest Lake, MN. The Nerness Family began with
singing a song or two in church and has grown gradually over the last four
years. Now, the group is capable of doing 1 ˝ to 2 hour sets.

"We have six to eight hours
worth of program we can do, depending on the occasion – if we are doing two or
three sets a day on a free stage, each set we dress differently and playa different
style of music. The different free stage sets that we do are country, rock,
gospel, acapella, seniors and variety. When we do a
grandstand show we do a variety of the above. Our shows are very audience
interactive.” Explained Harvey. "We make up a list that will
fit for that setting, so it's all laid out when we get there
and everybody knows what they're going to do." Harvey emphasizes that The Nerness Family
is a business that

provides a substantial source of income for
the household. Besides the musical aspect of the program, they also include
skits, and audience participation. "The purpose of our group is to bring
the message of a family being together and not to show off the talent of our
kids, although that happens, and it's important to do a good job," he
explained. Doing a "good job" requires a lot of advance preparation
and rehearsal. That takes place in the studio-equipped garage. According to
Andrew, rehearsing can "get to be a chore." "His goal is eight
hours a week," Andrew related about his Dad's expectations. "That's
eight hours as a group. Outside of practice, we have to practice on our
own." The biggest block of rehearsal time comes on Friday nights. "I try
to knock off at about 4 o'clock," said Harvey, who also works
as a manufacturer's representative. "Then we try to start at about 4 or 5,
assuming we aren't playing somewhere."

Prayer begins each rehearsal
session. "It's a challenge with so many different personalities,"
said Harvey. "We are forced to work out our differences when we
practice. If we had to do it without the Lord, it would be impossible.” The
family also encourages feedback on their rehearsal sessions from people outside
the immediate family."We always try to invite
friends over for the last half hour or so, and then we all go out for
pizza," Harvey explained. "That makes it more
“look-forwardable” for the kids. And when you play it
for somebody else, you know what it's like for your audience." The members
of the group are also good at critiquing themselves. "After we're done
playing, we all have stuff to say," said Allison. "On the ride to our
next engagement, we'll all talk about how it went, what we liked, what we
didn't like."

Consequently, the Nerness’ are
constantly changing and adding to their program. Everyone has input into
possible songs that could be added to their repertoire. The family's desire to
improve their music and their performance led them on a trip to one of the more
popular show venues. "We took the whole family and went to Branson (Missouri)," related Harvey. "We all went to two shows a
day for a week. The reason why is we wanted to see and learn what they're doing
down there." The family members came away with some specific ideas on how
to improve upon their performances, such as shortening songs to less than three
minutes in order to hold the audience's attention. The Nerness Family generally
performs at venues that are within 1 day from home, although need for their
group has taken them to places as far as the panhandle of Nebraska, and they
recently received an invitation to perform in Arizona. "This year, we're
going farther than we have before," said Harvey. "We need to reach out a
little more." Their group is expanding in other ways, too. The Nerness
Family is currently entered in a contest with a major recording studio that has
a main prize of a $50,000 re-cording contract. But they've also begun recording
on their own with equipment purchased about a year and a half ago. Andrew
handles the technical aspects of that endeavor. "We've had some software
and hardware problems," said Harvey. "... And since we don't have
a soundproof studio, we get a lot of tics and noises on the recordings. We
can't do it at sunset, because you can hear the birds chirping. Another time,
it was windy, and you could hear the wind chimes." "And one time you
could hear my dryer was on," added Linda. Despite such setbacks, the
Nerness’ prefer to work on recording at home, where they don't have the
pressure of getting the job done during the time allotted in a rented recording
studio. They hope to get some major work done on two CDs within coming weeks.
They are using three different Minneapolis professional recording studio’s to
help with mixing and mastering."One thing we've noticed is that Andrew
has perfect pitch, and Allie, now, too." said Harvey. "I don't. I have relative
pitch. But (perfect pitch) really helps with recording. If something's not
right, Andrew picks up on it right away." A new focus for The Nerness
family is acapella music, and Harvey would like to do more original
songs, too. "We're probably at a point where we can do some creative
things, along with some more acapella and some more
youth contemporary music," he said. Besides each taking an active role on
stage, each family member also contributes to The Nerness Family in other ways,
having found a niche in which they can be helpful with the bookings, office
work and recording efforts. "We never planned it that way," emphasized
Harvey. "It was just that things need
to be done, and somebody takes it and runs with it."